About
|
Hi, I’m Jonathan Elliot and I have stupid hair. I write about sociology, the meaning of life, music and my search for g0d. If I don’t find her, I’ll settle for a good cup of coffee. I’d love your help as we find our way through this strange world we call “life”. I’ll share some of my journey with you as we learn together. I’m an academic with a sense of humour and write about all kinds of stuff. I mix my own personal opinions with more academic and “objective” musing, hopefully it’s clear which is which. I live in New Zealand. I’m a huge music fan, you’ll usually find a link to what’s on my radar right now. I’m in postgraduate study and will earn my PhD (sociology) one day. My current academic interests include sociology of religion, sexuality, technology, nationalism, war, Foucault, Ellul, French sociology, Vico, Agamben. I’m a burner, #Occupier, #99% My opinions are my own and do not represent the views of the institution where I work. There is no such thing as a neutral position, so it’s best just to be honest about my biases: |
|
My background, I’m a former evangelical christian, now agnostic who still has a soft spot for g0d-stuff. Not to mention a revulsion for most conservative christian expressions of spirituality. Socially, I’m mostly what the USAsians call ‘liberal’; I support gay marriage, I vote Green and believe what Frankie says when it comes to war. I feel uncomfortable over the abortion question, and I think working hard and being honest is a good thing. On my good days I might be considered post-evangelical or emergent.
My intentions, I want to explore faith and non-faith with an open-mindedness to finding a belief I can commit to, but a probability that I won’t. As for the faiths, I’d like to explore them all – from wicca to womens’ spirituality, from atheism to aruveydic yoga, from Satanism to sex gurus (can’t wait to explore that last one). However, I’ll probably major on the great world religions. Plus a spicing of all the topics within our complex lives; evil, love, ethnicity, politics, war, sexuality, ethics, pluralism and cheese.
If you have an opinion, I’d love to hear it. If you can back it up (with intarwebz links of course!) that’s even better.
Peace and respect to you.
—no matter how stupid your beliefs 
Jonathan
Follow me on Twitter. Friend me on Facebook. Contact me on Diaspora* 
.
.
Useful Stuff
* Comment Guidelines
* Books! What I’m reading.
* Here’s why I called this Spritzophrenia.
* You may also find my FAQ helpful.
* Music roll of honour Front Line Assembly | Sex Pistols | Slayer | Peter Paul and Mary | Mortal | Oliver Lieb |Chris Liberator | King’s X | Cosma | Argyle Park | Cradle of Filth | Mr Bungle | Hallucinogen | Ministry | Sun Control Species | System of a Down | Julie Miller | Motorhead | Secret Archives of the Vatican | Dead Kennedies | Bikini Kill…
uberVU - social comments said
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by jonathanhelix: All I can say is I’m so happy I finally started my blog http://spritzophrenia.wordpress.com/about – funny, deep, spiritual
…
Primewax said
Spot on, I’d say. And I’m a Christian. What is the point of bigotry? I want everyone to believe in Christ, heck, its the core of my religion. But I’m not gonna beat you over the head with my beliefs. If we have to agree to disagree, we can still get along.
spritzophrenia said
Thanks. Welcome on board.
gardenbuddha said
Christians and others can never get along because Christians believe the rest of us are going to hell. Isn’t this also the core of your religion?
spritzophrenia said
Well, I know quite a few christians who don’t believe in hell. I ended my time as a christian not believing in it. Hell isn’t in the “core” statements of faith like the Nicene Creed, either. So maybe there’s hope?
Kuyya E said
I’m just a tad mystified, but not that surprised, at the terminological appropriation of the blog title. i suppose the metathesis is clever: Mad Cool, yo? I’ll peruse further, since David Heys suggested your site, for any semblance of props where props are due.
P$ychiatric manifestations of torture come and go
Like Disco.
I Believe In Pain, Cruelty and Infidelity « Spritzophrenia said
[...] a more interesting title than “Why Spritzophrenia”, wasn’t it? As evidenced by this comment, it’s probably about time I clarified the theme of this [...]
Welcome New Readers « Spritzophrenia said
[...] About [...]
kerrin said
Jonathan, you may in fact be my Spritzophrenia siamese brother from another mother (or maybe the same mother: nature/G-d), separated by individual unique consciousness. My experience and take on life is eerily similar to yours. Cheers to the journey!
spritzophrenia said
Kerrin, I’m glad to meet you
You might like to subscribe to my free updates (via RSS, button top left).
Warmly
Jonathan
Mystiiic said
*
dan said
hello! just stumbled on your site. i’m an agnostic from chicago, my atheist friend and i started http://www.god-defined.com, which collects god definitions from around the world. Please consider adding any definitions you come up with to our ever expanding list!
Hope you get at least one laugh from it….Dan
http://www.god-defined.com
peace, etc.
spritzophrenia said
Thanks Dan, I will take a look and likely link to your site at some point. Hope to see you back again soon
Jonathan
roy said
hey jonathan,
just wanted say thanks for your work here. i’m pursuing some truth i can pray too. im so mixed up about religion and spirituality right now it seems ive lost my path.
my daughter has been recruited by her mothers church for missionary work and she has “given her life to jesus”. i expected the military to come after my son but i never saw this coming. im sure god gave us life and free will to define our own purpose/life, not someone else’s. im doing research about all this before i talk to her.
thanks!
roy
spritzophrenia said
Thanks for stopping by, Roy. I too ‘gave my life to jesus at one point’ and am still ‘christian friendly’ in many ways, so I understand where she’s coming from. If she’s in her late teens/early 20s it may be a phase which she will grow out of. Many (most?) christians lose their extreme zealous phase after a few years. Unless it’s a particularly abusive church she will acquire a lot of useful skills and life experience.
I don’t have a problem with missionary work in principle, if it’s done sensitively it still respects others’ free will.
Anyway, feel free to stop by and comment or correspond
New Here? Read This « Spritzophrenia said
[...] About [...]
No Experience Is Better Than False Experience (Guest Post) « The Agnostic Pentecostal said
[...] Following is a guest post from my Kiwi friend, Jonathan Elliot, who writes about faith and being a friendly agnostic at Spritzophrenia.wordpress.com. [...]
gardenbuddha said
Just found your site via Twitter – love it. As a small child who had never heard the word “god”, I had my own sense of the “spiritual”. Then I was introduced to christianity and spent many years waiting for the holy spirit to touch me. It didn’t. I rejected christianity (and all other isms) when I realised its god was not my idea of love. Several spiritual crises later, I am now at home with agnosticism. So, having worn several “religious” hats through my life, I can see things from different perspectives. Nevertheless, I do still get impatient when people can’t see things my way.
spritzophrenia said
So glad to have you visit GardenBuddha. You can get updates easily by RSS (clicking the button at top left), or I think you’ve got an option to get emails when you comment.
Alien Sex Cult! « Spritzophrenia said
[...] About [...]
Ron said
Hi Jonathan,
Interesting site and thoughts. You may be interested in the Creedia project – the idea there is to let people express their beliefs and values by creating their own unique ‘my way’ profile, composed of ‘creed’ statements selected from a global directory. Take a look at some of the members’ profiles here: http://www.creedia.com/en/members . Some profiles are rather inspiring.
You are welcomed to join and create your own by pressing the ‘join us’ button on the home page.
For any comments, questions or help in technical issues I’m here at ronc at creedia.com. We do our best to make any member as comfortable as possible with his/her profile.
Much success with your search to find faith.
Best,
Ron
Theresa said
Hi Jonathan!
Since you’re open minded and want to explore all “faiths”, I have one for you that you don’t mention in your “about”.
http://www.youtube.com/user/AbrahamHicks#p/a/u/3/y70wiDqlCjs
or just you tube some Abraham-Hicks and you’ll come across lots and lots of mini-broadcasts (that can answer questions that may occur).
It works for me(after a bit of struggling with my thinking..) Still working on it. But I acknowledge the manifestations and “getting there” more and more each day.
Have a crack-for-crazy time and a wonderful day!
/@TheresaLavie
spritzophrenia said
Awesome, thanks for that Theresa. I will try to make time to check it out. *Adds to Notes*
Hope to see you back here again
Gil Richmond said
Hi Jonathan,
I used to visit agnostic forums a few times a month and I’ve noticed that it hasn’t been available for the last week or so. Do you have any idea why, or have you heard from Romansh or Bill?
On Facebook, I just joined some agnostic association (AAA?) so I may ask there if the agnostic forum website doesn’t reappear soon.
Best regards, Gil.
spritzophrenia said
Hi Gil
I’ve noticed the same thing. I’m hoping it comes back again. I think I have Bill’s email somewhere, so should get around to asking him sometime. Send me the link to the AAA?
Thanks
Jonathan
Siannaphey said
A great blog site and focus, I’m looking forward to exploring this more.
! I’m spiritual to me it means cultivating the art of “being” and finding contentment, centred-ness now, an openess into growing much more. Refining self knowledge, control, inner wisdom “knowing” and awareness and unity. Learning to entwine this within the daily manifests (and craziness) of life.
spritzophrenia said
Thanks Siannaphey, I love what you say about being “spiritual”. Warmly, jonathan
thom said
the world needs more people like you (and me) so don’t let anyone get you down. look forward to reading more.
spritzophrenia said
Thankyou Thom
Siannaphey said
Hi Jonathan, I think your blog is wonderful and felt that there was so much to share that I nominated you for the Leibster Blog Award. to learn more, follow this link http://siannaphey.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/nomination-for-the-liebster-blog-award/
Philip Scriber said
Hi Jonathan Mike Morrell and I really appreciate your blog, and think you’d be an excellent candidate for our Speakeasy Blogger Network. Do you like to review off-the-beaten path faith, spirituality, and culture books? Speakeasy puts interesting books in your hands at no charge to you. You only get books when you request them, and it’s free to join. Sign up here, if you’d like: http://thespeakeasy.info
You’re not on any contact lists, I promise; if you don’t respond, that’s it, and the invitation is open as long as you’re actively blogging. Hope you join us!